A World of Yaundae 3.5

A world to span the ages

Giants, oh my!

The adventure thus far:

The cavern was dark. The tower smelled of death. The dank heat and steam was everywhere outside.

The party after its encounter with Camber (the insane drow wizard) holed up in a barricaded room. Nothing disturbed the party’s rest and after regaining spells in the morning, the party returned through the steam filled and crumbling caverns. The lava pool blazed heat and the green glow of the cavern that the party decided not to check out. Briefly stopping at the intersection of the caverns it was determined that where ever the necroship was, it wasn’t with the drow. The deep gnomes most likely had it and weren’t likely to give it up to the drow without a fight. The party returned to the surface.

Other party members were collected and back to the elven city of Erth, nation of Alfheim. The week journey back to Erth was uneventful. The druid was easily able to find food and water to keep the party fed. The party set up the teleport and took care of training. During training the Spring equinox passed without notice. (Eldon, Spring celebration is very important to druids). The Great and Grand druid hands you a demerit for lack of worshipping at the spring rituals. Eldon is assigned the tasks of planting towering pine trees for a week to make it up.

Aldin said he did have teleport spells and the party decided to take all the items that were not magical and sell them at the Bizarre Bazaar. A merchant by the name of Vestus offered to buy all the non magical items at full value. If one of the party wishes to purchase an item then it was decided that will be part of thier share. The magic items will be divided at a future time. While the party was training and determing the future owner of items word comes back from the deep gnomes to the high elves. They have the necro ship and after mastering its use, they used it to in a attack on the drow fane. They utterly destroyed it and killed every drow present. The treasure over flowed the necro ship.

After training and selling it was decided to find out about Aldin’s home land that was under attack from assorted Giants. In a time long ago the Drom Empire had floating cities that ruled the entire lands east of Kyronia. A few places that were magic abundant where chosen to build surface cities. The city of Wizards, Lungold was built on the eastern shores of a vast ocean that had towering icebergs to the north and steam filled islands to the south. After the great fall of Drom, Lungold was one of the few cities that survived and even thrived without the rule of the Drom Empire. Lungold is thousands of years old by keep neutral in the great Dragon wars and Giant conflict.

Part of that neutrality was ceding land to the giants as they grew their race and fought for dominance in the northern reaches of the Vilyaet lands. Many tribes of giants found the land appealing. They roamed the land, hunted and camped and began to settle. The centuries later at the peak of giant expansion was the Dragon and Giant wars. Only the elves knew what the cause was but mighty and terrible armies fought battles and blasted life and land. The Dragons were fought to a stand still and the giants suffered horribly. Their numbers much reduced they hid in the hills and mountains where no other race could find them. It has been centuries and a few giant tribes allied briefly with a massive orc army to try and over run the human lands. The humans held fast and the army was broken. Giants were hunted and slain through out the southern Vilyaet lands. The northern tribes watched and bid their time.

Now is the time. The northern tribes have grown strong again. With dragon predation and the smaller races hunting them the northern lands have cause the giants to grow and became legion again. And now its time to reclaim ancient lands. Hocath is a village located on a ancient warm spring with fresh water flowing from the many streams in the mountains. Settled a hundred years ago it was a village that prided itself on its ability to grow and receive visitors. Aldin grew up here and then attended the College of the Arcane in Lungold. He proved adept in the arts and made a name for himself and grew in his ability. Until word reached him that his home village was under attack.

As were many villages in the last two years. At first it was missing cattle and sheep and crops being pilfered. Then missing villagers. Then fires and buildings being suddenly destroyed by rain of stone. Then whole families went missing. Wagons and caravans were attacked and thier goods and food were stolen. Finally a raid against a fortified village killed several of the invaders. It was giants. Hill giants. Ogres. Orcs. The local Baron could not cope with the numerous attacks and sent out a plea for adventurers to come to his land and find out what is causing these giants to band together. Even with ancient feud’s it was unknown in the northern lands. Aldin, Eldon, Dargis and Calin decided to head to the north. Several teleports later the band arrived in the village. A few soldiers and the town elder Gustavis were trying to calm the villagers. An attack last night damaged several buildings and several more villagers have gone missing.

The band headed northeast up into the hills and mountains at the End of the World. A guide and Eldon finally found the concealed trail and 10 miles later a vast wooden manor, fit only for giants appeared beyond the rise. The guide showed them to a warm cave that was concealed from the giant steadings main entrance. The party maintained vigil for a day. They saw a troop of giants head down the trail. Eldon followed in eagle form and saw them meet and bring back a troop of ogres. Back at the cave the day passed watching the steading, patrols of ogres and giants as well as military drills. Plans were laid and a night passed. The next morning was heavily over cast. Early morning horns and bells sound and 5 tall giants with milky skin descended and stayed with the giants till mid afternoon. Then ascended back up. Knowledge and shared memories remembered that Cloud giants can rise and fall at will. The party decided to attack. The giants poured out of the main door and advanced. Blade barriers and lightning and ice storms rained down on the giants. Four died as they tried to navigate around the barriers toward the cave. Then the main doors opened wide and two ballistae rolled out and took aim. The first bolt landed true (natural 20 not that anyone needs to know) and the bolt exploded with green fire. Several on the party were on fire but the damage was minimal. It was time for the party to leave. More plans were laid but in the night a giant raid demolished several more buildings in Hocath and left 10 headless bodies outside the village main building.

The next day the plans were determined after the scouting was done. The party returned and came back with barrels of oil. Aldin dimensioned door inside the steading and finally found the tower and the main door. Teleport and teleport and the party came back bearing barrels of oil. It was pushed down the stairs. Oil spread throughout the stairwell and the lower level. The oil was lit and greasy smoke poured upwards through the natural chimney. The horns and alarm bell sounded. The party teleported to the main doors and cast another blade barrier across the door. The giants of the tower had jumped out and started advancing on the party. The party teleported back to Hocath. An immediate evacuation was begun. A chorus of howling sounded from out of the hills.The villagers took two days but managed to make it to Secath without any attacks. The party returned and the village has been flattened. 20 more headless bodies now hang from crosses arranged around the village…

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.